31
Being at Gyor again and not seeing Assyria, especially after discovering her trying to pleasure herself that morning, was extremely difficult. Not because I wanted to see her, but our bond sure as fuck wanted us together. I hadn’t caved yet, and I wasn’t going to until I needed to fetch her for our departure the following day.
Weeks ago, Xannirin had the bright idea to have a ball to send off the soldiers, another way to appease the restless nobles and show them that we had everything well in hand. Unfortunately for me, it was too late to back out of it by the time Assyria upended my life. At least Rapp was with me again. The two of us leaned against the massive carved basalt columns that lined the edge of the ballroom, providing a modicum of privacy to those who wanted to stand behind them and observe.
A select group of Parancsok, Százados, and Vezet? were invited to Gyor for the event, and some passed by us, they stopped to salute before continuing to a drinks table. All those in the army wore similar attire: red capes secured with metal buttons that signified their rank, crisp leather pants, and a jacket with long tails. I wore my black ensemble from the formal dinner a few weeks before.
Noble females twirled about the dance floor, their wispy dresses floating on the air as their partners took them through the intricate steps. The veils were more sheer than ever, leaving plenty of opportunity for them to bat their long lashes at my soldiers.
I sipped from a glass of scale as I watched them, grateful Kiira wasn’t here to force me out there with them.
As if I thought her into existence, my cousin appeared at the top of the stairs, dressed in all black, with a shimmering veil tucked beneath a gold circlet on her brow. She turned to say something to a female behind her, and then she stepped up, dressed in a similar, low cut black gown, though her face covering was more opaque than sheer.
My heart dropped to my stomach.
Because a yoke yanked me forward, and my eyes landed on who could have only been my fucking mate. Assyria wore the form of another, that much was obvious, and the bond that tied our fates together was dulled. But it didn’t lie when it pointed me directly to her.
Glass shattered, barely audible over the roaring in my eardrums. Rapp said something, but his voice was muted until he smacked my hand. A sting rippled across it, and I tore my attention away from the rebellious female and toward my second in command.
“What?”
I snapped.
“You’re bleeding,”
Rapp retorted, looking pointedly at the jagged drinkware.
Sure enough, ruby dripped around shards of glass slicing into my palm. The pain didn’t even register over the fury flying through my veins. With a growl, I yanked them out and tossed them to the floor, where even bigger ones waited for a servant to clean them up. Assyria moved, and the bond slashed my gaze to the stairs where she and Kiira descended into the ballroom.
“What are you looking–oh,”
Rapp started to question, but followed my line of sight to Kiira and Assyria.
“Is that–”
“Don’t even say it,”
I snarled, flexing my fingers as I started to heal.
Rapp had the nerve to laugh as I stomped away, bringing a storm of rage along with me. Demons flew apart as I crossed the room, one wrong move away from raining shadows down on every single person in it. Assyria’s attention snapped to me, and the bond scorched my skin, driving me faster toward her.
Little did it know, it wouldn’t end well for her when we collided.
Kiira’s eyes widened and she half-stepped in front of my mate once they reached the bottom of the stairs, as if she could protect them both from my wrath. Saying nothing, I gripped both of their arms and hauled them through a nearby door. A smattering of servants preparing platters jumped at our sudden entrance.
“Out,”
I barked, and they scattered like leaves in the autumn wind.
Slamming the door behind them and ensuring both were locked, I leveled my attention on my cousin and my mate. “Whose. Idea. Was. This.”
“Mine,”
Kiira said, jutting her chin up and crossing her arms over her chest.
“Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me?”
I managed to bite out each word without smashing the row of glasses beside me into the wall. Though, if I heard any more horseshit from either of them, I might make a show of it, just to drive home my point.
“Assyria has been trapped in your chambers for almost a week and she deserves–”
“She deserves nothing!”
I shouted, temper shattering like the glass in my hand. “I had two rules–”
“And one of them was that I was under constant guard, and the other was that you are around. Both of which are currently true.”
Assyria dropped her magic and cut me with a glare so sharp I wondered if she was just as ready as I was to smash some fine crystal.
In two steps, I was on top of her, hand closing around her delicate throat and forcing her to look into my fury etched features. “You disobeyed me.”
Her burgundy eyes ignited behind the veil. “I did no such thing.”
I opened my mouth to speak again, but she snarled, “You did not explicitly say I wasn’t allowed to come.”
Leaning closer, I squeezed, just enough to cut off her air. Then, mouth nearly flush against her ear, I growled, “You couldn’t come earlier, and you can’t come now. Go back to my chambers and I will fetch you from there tomorrow.”
“Make me,”
she snarled.
The last tendril of my self control snapped.
Like a petulant child, I threw her over my shoulder, ignoring Kiira’s protests as I stalked to the far door. Flinging it open, I found a servant’s hall, with at least half a dozen hurrying from one destination to the next. They all halted once I stepped into it. “As you were,”
I growled, while Assyria yelped, “Put me down you fucking brute!”
Confusion flitted across several female’s faces, but the expression I wore must have put them off from intervening, and they scurried away.
“Do you see what you are doing?”
I groused, not caring that she bounced roughly against my back with every forceful step I took down the hall. Not nearly as forcefully as my heart thudded against my ribcage. Whether it was from fury or fear was of no consequence to me, as the result was the same. “You are putting us all in danger with your antics.”
“Says the male currently losing his shit over a female,”
Assyria pointed out, punctuating her words with open palmed smacks against my back. “The servants will talk more about the broody, villainous Halálhívó throwing an innocent female over his shoulder and carrying her away than they ever would have about a priestess arriving with Kiira!”
“Shut the fuck up,”
I snarled, yanking her over my shoulder and pinning her against a nearby wall. We’d traveled far enough away from the ballroom that we shouldn’t be overheard, and the servants should all be attending to the guests’ needs and not traverse deeper into their network of passages.
Every inch of us that touched burned, hotter than a wildfire even with the fabric between us. My thigh pressed between hers, and I stepped closer, cock straining against my pants. Pure, unbridled lust tore down the bond, and I planted my arms on either side of her head, staring down at my fucking mate. Chest heaving, I struggled to regain control of the situation, of myself.
“With the way you departed the ball, the whole court will be talking about how you assaulted Kiira and me,”
she hissed.
I smashed my fist into the wall next to her head, denting it. “I told you to shut your mouth.”
She laughed. Fucking laughed. Tipped her head back and let that sarcastic, callous sound into the space between us. “You don’t know me, but I never have been good at doing that. Or what I’m told for that matter.”
“Then I will break you,”
I growled. I was in fucking control here, and I would remind everyone involved in this farce of that fact. Assyria needed to submit to my will because if she did not, I couldn’t protect her. I hated that I wanted to do that. I shouldn’t care about the safety of this female. Yet the Reaper had cursed me with this damn bond that made it impossible to want anything else.
“You aren’t the first to try, and you certainly won’t be the last.”
She smiled, a feral saccharine one that I wanted to smother with my dick immediately.
An animalistic sound tore from my chest, and my mouth closed over hers. She tasted like red wine, all rich berries and earthy tannins, and my nose filled with the scent of roses. A moan, long and low, slipped from her mouth into mine as she opened for me. Swiping my tongue against hers, I deepened our kiss, pressing her more firmly into the wall. Her fingers dug into my ribs as she clutched my waistcoat.
Then, she shoved.
I stumbled back, chest heaving as my mind cleared enough to glimpse shadows swirling around her arms and a wild look on her face.
“That was a mistake,”
I snarled, straightening my clothes.
“The kiss or that I attacked you with my shadows?”
she said, narrowing her eyes on me.
“Both,”
I growled, reaching for her. I wasn’t done with her; she’d spend the rest of the evening in my chambers, under guard so she couldn’t slip away.
She jerked out of my grip and ducked under my arm before I could touch her. Spinning, a depraved smirk split my face as she backed down the hall, her eyes firmly on me. “Go ahead and run, little imposter. My favorite game is catch.”
The bond, like a wild beast, thrashed with pleasure at the thought of hunting her down and claiming her. She must have felt it too, because her pupils darkened, so large they nearly swallowed all the burgundy surrounding them. Her white teeth sank into her bottom lip, raking over it in a way that was entirely sinful.
And then, she ran.
Nothing could have stopped me from following.
Light like a deer, she raced through the halls, taking one sharp turn after another, trying to put some space between us. But my legs were longer, and I knew these twists and turns better than she did. She scrambled for the handle of a door, twisting it and flinging it open, only to find herself in a stairwell. Throwing a devious glance over her shoulder, she raced up them, hitting the first landing at the same time as my foot smacked against the bottom step.
“When I catch you, little imposter, I am going to punish you.”
A laugh rippled down from above.
Taking the steps two at a time, I sprinted up them, closing the distance faster and faster as she slowed. Her breathing was labored by the time I was only a few steps behind her.
She appeared to accept her defeat and stopped when she reached the landing. I paused, a wicked thrill licking its way up my spine as I imagined exactly what I would do to her. Then, as if I were approaching a wild animal, I crept forward, scouting for a twitch of muscle or slash of eye that would indicate a planned move.
Two steps away, the air around her shifted, and I stared at myself. Blinking, I paused, and that moment of hesitation was enough for her to shove. A smile spread across my mirrored face, and then I was falling, arms pinwheeling as I tried to regain my balance. With a heavy thud, I landed against the stairs. A grunt burst from me. She raced away from me again, the sound of her pounding steps reverberating in my ears.
Exhilaration curled through me. Assyria was wild, clever, and smarter than that mouth of hers. “If I didn’t feel the hate mixing with lust down our bond, I’d have to think you liked this, little imposter,”
I growled, snatching at a thread of our bond and yanking her attention to me.
“I am simply trying to get away from the mate I don’t want,”
she shot back, her tone breathy even in my mind.
Rubbing the back of my head, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Diving into my magic, I tapped into our shared connection to sense her location. She wasn’t in the stairwell any longer, and in this part of the palace, most of the rooms led to empty offices or storage.
An easy place to trap my prey.
I took my time winding up the next flight of stairs, strolling onto the landing and out again into the hall like I had all the time in the world to find her. The yoke that tied us together was invisible, and yet it led me straight to her. Down one hall, past several half-open doors, as if she had attempted to throw me off her path, I hunted her. Stopping, I listened for the telltale rapid breaths and pounding heart that were nearly impossible to hide after a sprint like the one she’d taken away from me.
I sensed her on the wall to my left, though there was no entry there. So I snuck around another corner and found a closed door waiting for me. Hand on the knob, the bond flared between us, as if it too sensed that Assyria was trapped and soon to be at my mercy. Lust flooded my veins, so thick and heady I couldn’t stop the image of her on her knees, my dick hitting the back of her throat, that surfaced.
Growling, I slammed the door open, finding a storage room, white sheets thrown over furniture, tarnished silver lined in neat rows on one wall, and a set of footprints in the dust. “If you thought you were trapped before, little imposter, just wait until I get my hands on you.”
Taking one step, then another, I crept forward, following the disturbed path to the far side of the room. But Assyria wasn’t there.
I sensed her before I heard her, and I whipped around, catching her arm and yanking her flush against me. The white sheet she had been standing on spilled to the floor, revealing an aged dining table, rings of long-dried wine dotting its surface. In one smooth motion, I had her ass on it, legs pinned between mine, and my face buried in her neck.
“This game isn’t as fun when the bond leads me straight to you,”
I growled, yanking off her veil before fisting her hair. I used my grip to tilt her head to the side, baring her pretty throat to me.
“Get your hands off me,”
she snarled, shoving at me again. But I was prepared this time, and my shadows sprung to life, mixing with hers and tangling both of us in a web of their making. All sense, all reason, fled with the connection, something about their intertwining pulled a moan from both our chests.
“Put your magic away before I fuck you on this table,”
I groused, nearly shaking with how hard I fought the bond’s pull to claim.
“You first,”
she said, her voice so raspy it sent heat straight to my groin.
Something between a groan and a growl slipped from my throat as I sucked my magic back into me, and I forced myself to release her and take three healthy steps back. Her eyes were wild, dark, and flaming with more than one emotion. Those bow-shaped lips parted slightly, making her pout nearly irresistible.
“This fucking bond,”
I cursed, nails digging into my palm as I continued to restrain myself. I would not surrender to its wants. I was in control.
Seeming to return to herself, she blinked and shifted off the table. “Can we go now? I’d like to return to the ball. I didn’t even have a chance to enjoy myself before you created a thunderstorm.”
“Absolutely not. You’re going back to my chambers and you will remain there until I say you can emerge again.”
She scoffed and stepped forward like she was going to leave me in this storage room. I snatched her arm again, and our skin seared where we touched. Energy crackled between us, and I lost the precarious hold I had over my self control. Shadows burst from me, wrapping around Assyria’s slim body and forcing her back to the table.
My lips crashed against hers before I could stop myself, and then she was as tangled with me as I was with her, nails digging into my bare scalp as she pulled herself closer. I wrapped one strong arm around her back and bent her backward, climbing on top of her and pinning her beneath my body. A wanton moan slipped into my mouth as my hardness dug in between her thighs.
All thought, all reason, vanished as I turned completely feral, grinding against her, gripping her back and lifting, sinking my tongue between her lips. She sucked my lower lip in between her teeth and nipped, flooding our mouths with metallic blood.
“Rokath, I need more,”
she panted, breaking our kiss, breasts brushing against my chest. That only urged me on, and I used my free hand to bunch up her dress, exposing her legs. She wrapped them around my waist, and I rolled my hips against hers again, eliciting another delicious sound from her.
With as much force as I pressed into her, she pressed back, mouth desperate against mine. I couldn’t breathe, all my air fleeing my lungs into her body, and hers retreating into mine. One hand slipped between us, trailing up her exposed thigh and toward her cunt. Her skin was softer than the silk draped over her body, and when my fingers brushed the sensitive parts of her inner thighs, she trembled against me.
So I stroked higher, higher, higher until I found a thin slip of fabric covering her. Teasing a finger under it, I twisted and twisted until the fabric tightened enough for me to rip. She gasped as her undergarment fell away, and I took the opportunity to move my mouth to her neck, licking and sucking along its length.
Our bond flared, thickened, pulsed with want. I was a slave to its desires, her desires. And she wanted my mouth lower. So I dropped to my knees and yanked her to the edge of the table where I could feast on her exposed pussy.
Assyria squirmed and dug the tips of her fingers into the hard wood as if she were considering breaking away from me. That stopped the moment I flattened my tongue against her.
A river of arousal greeted me, and I lapped it like a male dying of thirst. Stroking, flicking, sucking, I drove her wilder and wilder until her mewls echoed around the room. Nails scratching my scalp, she tugged me closer, and I buried my face into her, using my tongue to fuck her center.
“Oh, Fates, Rokath, don’t stop,”
she pleaded, head tilting back as she bathed in the pleasure I delivered her. I spread her legs wider, giving myself better access, and then slipped one finger inside her. Like a cracking whip, her body rolled from hips to head, and a primal cry tore from her throat as she came. Around that solitary finger, her cunt pulsed, and wetness gushed down my hand and into my mouth.
A groan rumbled in my chest as I sucked her clit into my mouth, drawing out her orgasm. She pushed my head away, chest heaving, a flush painted across her chest and face.
Through a haze of lust, I blinked up at her, mind trying to process what just happened. That moment alone brought me enough clarity that I jumped to my feet and backed away.
A strangled cry passed her lips as the bond seared into both of us, punishing us yet again for breaking apart. Swiping her arousal from my mouth, I growled, “That was just the bond.”
A mosaic of conflicting emotion decorated her face, flashing from desire, to confusion, to hate and finally settling there. “Just the bond,”
she replied, an iciness coating her posture.
“Glad we both agree. Now get up and start walking,”
I ordered her, gravel rolling through my tone.
She sliced me with a glare but did as I asked, straightening her dress and snatching the discarded veil before stalking to the exit. Dragging in a serrated breath, I counted to ten, nearly begging my dick to soften so I didn’t have to traverse the halls of the palace with a massive erection.
“Take the next left,”
I told her as I followed her into the light, keeping my distance so that I didn’t lose control again.
I hate her. This lust is from the bond. I command it and not the other way around.
Without deigning to look in my direction, she turned abruptly, heading toward the main hall of the palace. We’d have to move quickly across it and up the next flight of stairs that led to the wing housing mine and Xannirin’s private apartments. Her protection rested in her anonymity, and I’d already fucked up enough with my earlier behavior around those at the ball and the servants.
I loathed that she had spoken true.
Listening for approaching footsteps but hearing none, I directed her onward. Hopefully, the revelry was enough distraction that no one would be out wandering.
To my relief, no one crossed our path before we approached the final hall. The Kral’s Guard permanently stationed at the end of it blanched at our approach, gazes flicking between Assyria and me. “Your Glory, we didn’t know she was out of your room,”
the leader stammered.
“For once, this isn’t your fault,”
I growled back. “But if she leaves again tonight, I will have your heads in the morning.”
“Yes, sir,”
they said in unison, true fear shining in their eyes.
“You could be nicer, you know.”
“You could shut the fuck up, you know.”
They parted, letting us pass before closing ranks again. Assyria flung the door to my suite open, not caring that the wood smacked against the wall behind it, then stormed into the sleeping chamber without looking at me.
An image of her naked in my bed flashed through my mind, and I had to count to ten again in an attempt to keep it firmly in fantasy and not in reality. The door to it slammed shut a moment later, lock clicking loudly into place. “You know that won’t keep me out, right?”
Her scoff was as audible as if she were standing in front of me. “Like you’d want to be in here anyway. How are you going to stand having me around the war camp when you refuse to be in the same giant room as me?”
She had a point. In the war camp, we’d be forced together at all times, especially since I didn’t trust anyone to watch her other than Rapp or me. “Maybe I’ve spent all week building you a nice cage, so I can keep you right where I want you, and a leash to put around your pretty neck when I need to take you for a walk.”
She yanked the door open, facing me again. Her face was bare and still flushed from exertion, though the increasing redness likely stemmed from my words. “Like your fucking dogs?”
I stepped toward her, flattening my palms on either side of the doorframe. Her attention flicked to the outline of my dick, still straining against my pants, and she gritted her teeth even harder as our gazes collided again.
“Actually, they behave better than you do. They need no leash when they obey their master’s every command,”
I growled, itching to reach for her pretty neck and press her deeper into my room and command her in the way only I could.
“You are not my master,”
she hissed. Anger speared down the yoke between us, so palpable that it begged the dominant, aggressive side of me to carry out my darkest desires. Yet she arched into my space, almost imperceptibly. Her fingers twitched at her sides, making the veil sway.
“We’ll see about that, little imposter. Now, be a good girl and stay here. If you do, I might bring you a treat.”
I shoved off the door and stalked to the exit before the bond could force me to shatter the wood and fuck her senseless.
“I can’t wait,”
she said, her tone laced with so much sarcasm it halted me in my tracks. How I wanted to fuck the attitude right out of her. The taste of her arousal on my tongue didn’t help matters.
Keep it together, Rokath. You already lost control twice tonight.
With a growl, I let her have the last word. Too wound up to return to the ball, I slammed the door to Xannirin’s room open. The sound of my boots slapping against the polished floor as I strode to the balcony did nothing to drown out the roaring of the bond. It seared my shoulders, punishing me for walking away from Assyria.
The crisp night air did nothing to cool my temper. Chest heaving, I gripped the balustrade. A string of curses toward the Weaver and the Reaper didn’t help either.
In the morning, I’d collect Assyria and then we’d be forced together all hours of the day for the foreseeable future.
How was I going to control myself in front of the army? If I couldn’t keep a level head around her, how was I supposed to protect her?
“Fuck,”
I swore, banging my fists and glaring at the heavens.
I was the Halálhívó, the fucking leader of the entire Demon army. I had hundreds of thousands of males at my command. These soldiers, this bond, and this infuriating female all needed to remember that I was the one in charge and that I alone could save them.
If they did not, the consequences would be swift and severe.
***
The female’s hands shook as she realized she bled from between her thighs. The sight was met with a tumbling mixture of relief and trepidation. Her husband wanted nothing more than for the burgundy-eyed female to produce an heir for him. She wanted nothing less. Two years had passed of him entering her at least once a week and filling her with his seed. Other females in the village had borne children within a year of the priestess declaring them wed.
More than anything, she wished she could speak with her mother, to seek some comfort in her situation. Of late, her husband had become more aggressive toward her, especially as her belly continued to remain flat. Her sister, too, would have been a welcome reprieve from the unending dullness of her married life.
Yet he would not allow them to visit their estate, nor was she allowed to leave it to visit her family’s farm.
If their roles had been reversed, the female would have snuck in to see her sister. She had always been the rebellious one, though, where her sister kept her head down and followed all rules.
“Assyria,”
her husband barked through the door, causing her to jump.
“One moment please,”
she called back, quickly swiping a cloth and cleaning herself.
Glancing around the bathing chamber, the wife searched for a place to stash the offending object so she could remove the stains later, without her husband or their housekeeper knowing. He was so desperate to elevate his station. He’d said so that very morning. She’d begun to suspect he was tracking her cycles with how closely he’d been watching her these last days.
She waited too long, for the handle twisted with a metallic clang and her husband barged into the room. His attention immediately snagged on the red rag in his wife’s hand. A similar shade rose to his face.
Stomping toward her, he snatched her wrist and tugged. His wife stumbled into him, and he caught her by the throat, fingers wrapping tightly over her windpipe.
“That is your fault,”
he snarled, then threw her backward.
Her foot caught on the edge of the cabinet, and she crashed to the ground, cracking her head against the polished white tile. Yet the sound of it and the tears running down his wife’s face did nothing to remove the anger from his countenance.
“Vagach, you hurt me,”
she mumbled, blinking and trying to clear her vision.
Her husband towered over her. “You harm me by not being pregnant.”
Her brows dipped together, and her mouth parted slightly as if she were searching for words with which to respond to his statement. “You’ve never laid a hand on me before,”
she mumbled, pushing herself upright and swaying when she reached her feet.
The wife didn’t remain that way for long as her husband slapped her and sent her careening into the cool stone countertops. She managed to catch herself, bewilderment still clouding her thinking.
The husband had been cordial, even nice, to his wife at the beginning of their marriage, despite being strangers. He’d coveted her burgundy eyes and hoped to produce powerful offspring for his line to impress the Kral. She’d been reluctant to accept him, but her father had the final say in her life, and the Kormánzó had offered a handsome price for his daughter.
Pressing a palm into her stinging skin, she whirled to face her husband. “How dare you.”
Finally, she realized the first fall had been intentional.
“I will do what I please with my property,”
the husband snarled, trying to intimidate her.
She bared her teeth and shoved against his chest. “I do not belong to you.”
He snatched her wrists again. She winced from the pain. “Yes, you do.”
Securing them in one hand, he grasped the hem of her dress and shoved it up her hips. Twisting in his hold, she tried to jerk her hands free. She managed one and shoved again. He stumbled backward, catching both himself and her before she’d made it three steps away.
“You may be bleeding, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy your body,”
he snarled, shaking her shoulders. “After all, it is mine to do with what I please.”
She brought her knee up to his groan, and he released her, grabbing himself instead. Snatching her success, she bolted from the room. Portraits judged her as she raced down the hall and toward the kitchen. There, two doors offered her a chance to flee.
Steps before she breached the threshold, her husband caught the end of her hair and yanked. With a cry, she crashed to the ground, and a moment later, he was on top of her, pinning her beneath his weight.
She bucked and writhed, trying to dislodge him.
A sinister chuckle slid out of him as he caught her arms and pinned them above her head. Then, with his free hand, he unbuckled his belt. “Oh, I am going to enjoy this one. Very much.”
The scream that tore from his wife’s throat was made all the sweeter by the fact that no one was around to hear it, and no one was around to save her.